Our industry is largely an agricultural industry. Our members are primarily focused on providing farmers with the fertilizer they need, but we have strong links with the urban fertilizer industry, companies like Scotts and Sure-Gro, which provide fertilizer to homeowners. It is a small part of the total market in overall terms, but fertilizer is very important in our cities and towns to maintain proper green spaces. There are a lot of benefits to having good, healthy turf. It holds the soil and prevents erosion. There are many studies that show you actually have a better retention of the nutrients that exist in the soil anyway when you have a healthy cover of turf, which protects the soil from the loss of those nutrients into the soil.
One of the initiatives we've taken with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is to develop a low “P” standard; these would be fertilizer products that show a phosphorus level of 1% to 3% on the bag, which would be recommended for mature lawns in urban areas. A new lawn in the first couple of years needs a higher level of phosphorus, but after a lawn has been growing for a few years, it needs a lower level of phosphorus to maintain its root system and develop properly. We're providing some education on this, and we're hoping that the standard of 1% to 3% will be adopted across Canada.